"In Germany, you would not like to be ruled by Nazis, and we might have been, had it not been for Winston Churchill sticking to his guns.

"Wouldn't you say that it is immoral for one country to take over another country just because the other country is not so well armed? Wouldn't you think that was immoral?

"Well, let me put this to you, would you not think that 800 years ago what the British did was immoral, and they kept doing it and it's still immoral?"

The former Irish president Mary McAleese caused a storm when she claimed that Northern Ireland children were taught to hate Catholics in the same way the Nazis taught youngsters to hate Jews. She later apologised.

The late Fr Alex Reid, the priest who witnessed IRA decommissioning, also caused anger when he compared unionists to Nazis for past treatment of Catholics. He also apologised.